


a queen crowned with thorns

by zedille



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Episode Tag, Gen, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Season/Series 02, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 15:15:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14240064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zedille/pseuds/zedille
Summary: Raina, after her transformation. This is what she was destined to become. This is how it was always going to end.





	a queen crowned with thorns

**Author's Note:**

> Raina, as of episode 2x11 "Aftershocks"; an exercise in how many religious references (and semicolons) I could incorporate. Several years late, as is my usual these days.

Raina always knew she was destined for something greater. 

Her grandmother names her for the queen they know she will become. For a time, Raina even thinks herself queen of the mysteries of death, going as far as to dress herself in Kore’s flowers. She should have known better: death’s blossoms bear a bitter fruit only. They are both remade by their time underground, but Raina, unlike Persephone, never escapes her hell.

She reaches the surface three days after her emergence from the chrysalis, a harrowing journey through the darkness. The waning moon casts barely enough light to see by.  She stands by the edge of the sea and examines her reflection in the twilit waters, touches the spikes that rise from her head and face and body. Her flowers are no more, if ever they were hers; she is a queen only in name now, a queen crowned with thorns.

What she sought was forbidden knowledge, lost and forgotten for a reason; she transgressed as she transformed, and paid the price. She thought herself a prophet leading her sister into revelation, but the promised land beyond the Diviner was barred to her. The crucible should have unmade her to temper her, but she could not withstand the trial. She is never remade; part of her still remains in the underworld, the dross trapped in ashes and dust and ruin. 

The father who led her here has forsaken her, now that his prodigal daughter has returned. All of her years of service have been thrown aside. _She_ found the one who was lost, and this is how her efforts are repaid. She is disinherited, her birthright of beauty and power stolen from her, cast out and set apart and marked for her sins. There is nothing more for her now.

The highway is a sea of cars, made of rushing waves of metal and light. She will cross, and the waters will not part. She will let them wash over her.

Raina’s grandmother named her well. She is a queen, and she is seeking her own true country once again.


End file.
